ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3077 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3077 ************************************ 3 Apr 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if or is an appropriate name for an Italian woman living in Florence c. 1450, who was the daughter of an Italian woman and a French man. You also asked about arms using a blue or purple fleur-de-lys on a gold field, with a gold lion holding a gold harp on a green chief. Here is the information we have found. Before we start, we'd like to apologize for the amount of time it has taken to complete this report. We hope that the information is still useful to you. Your name and your father's name are fine choices; we find both and in Florence in 1427 [1,2], so 'Caterina daughter of Michele' is a lovely name for your place and period. Women with higher social standings were more likely to use a family name as well. If your persona is a woman of some standing, we suggest that you choose a family name. is a French phrase meaning 'of Lyon'; it wouldn't be appropriate in an otherwise Italian name. We do not know if a French man from Lyon would have been called 'of Lyon' if he was living in Italy, so we will suggest an alternative. The modern Italian name for is , which suggests the descriptive term . From this, we conclude that a byname of is a possible alternative. Your other choice for your father's byname, , we find in Florence between 1282 and 1532. [3] However, there are only a few examples to indicate that a French man would have been known by an Italian surname like , and so we cannot recommend this as the best choice for your persona. If your father was an Italian man, then is a fine name. [4] If, however, you still wish to use an Italian version of a French name, you may need to consider a different byname. We were unable to come up with a French surname which would adapt to the Italian . We suggest that you either adapt your persona story, making your father Italian, or select a French byname, which can then be adapted to Italian. Fleurs-de-lys are common charges in Tuscan heraldry, so that is a fine choice. We recommend that you make the fleurs azure, as this tincture was far more common than purpure in Tuscan heraldry. We found a number of Italian armorial designs which contain elements similar to yours, including: [5,6] Per fess argent and gules, in chief a wolf passant gules, (from San Gimignano) Per fess (some tincture) and bendy bretessed (tinctures), in chief a bird of some kind statant, (from Florence) Per fess (some tincture) and vair, in chief a lion passant debruised by a bendlet, to dexter a fleur-de-lys; and a chief of Anjou, (from Florence) Sable, a lion rampant guardant maintaining over its shoulder a mace Or, (from Siena) Sable, a lion rampant maintaining a quill pen Or, (from Siena) Or, a bull rampant azure maintaining a ragged staff vert,(from Siena) Or, three annulets gules and on a chief azure, a bull courant Or, (from Siena) Gules, issuant from a fess or a demi-dog erect argent and in base three fleurs-de-lys two and one abased Or, (from Siena) Based on this, we can recommend the following designs: Per fess vert and Or, a lion passant maintaining a harp Or and a fleur-de-lys azure. Or, a fleur-de-lys azure and on a chief vert a lion passant maintaing a harp Or. Or, three fleurs-de-lys azure and on a chief vert a lion passant maintaining a harp Or. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Arval Benicoeur, Maridonna Benvenuti, Gunnvor Silfraharr, Sara Marino, Katherine Trockmorton, Walraven van Nijmegen, Ursula Georges, Eleyne de Comnocke, and Talan Gwynek. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael & Calybrid Ine Tere 03 April 2006 -- References: [1] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto/ [2] Ferrante laVolpe, _Men's names from Florence, 1427_ (WWW: Self-published, 1996; Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto/ [3] Herlihy, David, R. Burr Litchfield, and Anthony Molho, "Florentine Renaissance Resources: Online Tratte of Office Holders 1282-1532" (WWW: Brown University, Providence, RI, 2000). http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/tratte/ [4] Friedemann, Sara L. "Names from Arezzo, Italy, 1386-1528" (WWW: Self-published, 2003) http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/italian/arezzo.html [5] Photographs of arms displayed at the Palazzo Communale in San Gimagnano, and at the Bargello Museum in Florence. [6] Borgia, L., et al., eds., _Le Biccherne: tavole dipinte delle magistrature senesi (secoli XIII-XVIII)_ (Roma: Ministero per i beni culturali e ambientali, 1984), plates 127, 128, 130, 133